In the past two days, Yu Chengdong and Xiaomi's air-to-air line has exploded the hot search.
Before I clicked on the entry, I thought that the two of them had launched some major business cooperation after reaching a "global patent cross-licensing agreement".
Unexpectedly, the controversy that caused a stir was for a hinge.
What is the controversy?
The cause of this contradiction began with a speech by Yu Chengdong at the "2023 Pollen Conference":
I don't respect our (Huawei's) intellectual property rights, so I just made up a name and said my own. The double-rotating droplet hinge directly becomes the keel hinge, and the keel does not exist.
In this regard, Xiaomi's official Weibo publicly replied that Yu Chengdong's remarks do not conform to the facts, and the keel hinge is self-developed by Xiaomi, and it is completely different from the double-spin waterdrop hinge regardless of the design idea or mechanical structure.
Xiaomi officially said that after studying the patents and technical information disclosed by the other party, and actually disassembling and verifying, it can be found that there are obvious differences between the two hinges:
Huawei's "Double Spinning Water Drop Hinge" is a structure of "2-stage rod set + 3 members + 4 low pairs".
Xiaomi's "Keel Hinge" adopts the design of "3-stage rod set + 5 members + 7 low pairs".
▲Xiaomi's official table.
To understand the Huawei and Xiaomi controversy, we must first understand what the "keel hinge" and the "double spin drop hinge" are.
The "Keel Hinge" is Xiaomi's latest hinge technology on the new generation of folding flagship MIX Fold3.
One of the highlights is that the material is hard, using super steel, which can withstand a strength of 1,800 megapascals, Lei Jun said, "as long as the material the size of a fingernail cover, it can withstand a weight of 54 tons, which is equivalent to an adult whale".
The second highlight is the flexible structure, the professional term "3-level rod set + 5 members + 7 low pairs" sounds too esoteric at first glance, in short, the more connecting rods, members and low pairs, the tighter the hinge and the flexible screen fit. When the phone is dropped, it can also "deform" with the screen, absorbing the impact and reducing the risk of screen damage.
Huawei, on the other hand, is the pioneer of the folding screen "double spin water drop structure". Zhang Chaoyang once explained the meaning of this structure in detail in an "online physics class".
To put it simply, the water drop configuration can ensure that the screen is completely parallel to each other after folding, and it can also make the "minimum pressure difference" and "maximum radius of curvature" at the bend, so that it will not leave deep creases on the screen after folding.
At the same time, the double-rotating gear module can maintain the stable water drop structure of the flexible screen, and the process of opening and closing has become very smooth.
The structure of double rotation + water droplet can reduce the thickness of the shaft, ensure the stability of the shaft, and realize the synchronous opening and closing and hovering function of the shaft.
As early as 2016, Huawei began to develop the "dual-spin water drop structure", which was first applied to the Mate X2. At the press conference at that time, Yu Chengdong said that Huawei's waterdrop hinge is an exclusive patent, and other companies must use Huawei's patented technology if they want to achieve a seamless folding screen.
Different paths lead to the same end, but there are many sects
Before the waterdrop hinge became a common solution, there were three schemes for the hinge technology of the folding screen:
- U 型
- Eagle wing
- Water droplet type
The U-shaped hinge is one of the first of the three and was pioneered by Samsung. The U-shaped hinge effectively solves the problem of the heaviness of the phone, and also allows the folded screen to be as close to the central axis as possible.
Although this scheme can effectively control the weight and thickness of the mobile phone, there is still a large gap between the screens, and the immaturity of the packaging process has made ash entering a new problem.
In the picture above, compared with Samsung, the Mate X uses an "eagle wing hinge" to fold outward, which not only allows the two screens to fit perfectly and reduces the thickness of the phone, but also eliminates one screen and reduces weight.
However, the flexible screen exposed after folding has become a shell to protect the mobile phone, and there is inevitably a risk of scratches, so it has not become a mainstream folding solution.
This year's Honor V Purse's "butterfly wing hinge" is a continuation of the eagle wing structure, and of course, it is also the only large-screen phone with an external fold among the 15 folding phones this year.
For the remaining 14 new machines, although the hinge scheme is the same as a water drop, each has derived a variety of schools:
To sum up, these schools all have their own strengths in these three points: service life, screen creases, and body weight.
Durability class representatives, OPPO has to count one. The hinge materials of the Find N3 are "zirconium alloy liquid metal" and "aerospace grade alloy steel", which sound far away from us, but in fact greatly extend the life of the hinge.
Experimental data shows that after 1 million folds, the Find N3's screen performance, hinges, and system functions still remain at a normal usable level.
With an average of 10 openings and closings per hour, a phone that can be used for 16 hours in a day is equivalent to more than 17 years of normal use with such a frequency of opening and closing.
At that time, the reputation of the Motorola Razr was seriously polarized, and the problem was in its hinges: this was indeed a very good-looking retro smart folding machine, but within a few months of getting started, the abnormal sound of the hinges made many of the first users pull weeds from there.
Now, OPPO has solved this problem from the root, and when it comes to consumables with an "heirloom" mentality, it always gets positive feedback.
The vivo X Fold2, which was released earlier this year, performs well in the screen crease, using a high-light fiber hinge bracket to make it more than enough to pile up.
The secret to controlling creases is also in the diameter of the hinge. The diameter of the waterdrop hinge of the vivo X Fold2 has been increased from 4.6mm to 5.0mm, and the flatness has been increased by 40%. After experience, its crease control is among the new machines this year, and it does belong to the first echelon.
If we disassemble the hinges of all this year's folding screen flagships and compare them together, Honor may be the most special one, because only its structure has no springs.
Glory named the hinge "Luban" because it brought the "mortise and tenon structure" to the hinge.
The original 92 parts were reduced to 4, and the traditional gears and springs were replaced by sliding components, which were used to open and close the hinges and hover at multiple angles through multiple grooves and grooves in the assembly.
With fewer parts, it is naturally lighter. Therefore, the 3 folding screens updated by Honor this year are "thin and light" are important selling points. In particular, the Honor Magic Vs2 controls the thickness of 5.1mm and 10.7mm in the unfolded and folded states, which feels amazing.
On the other hand, the reduced hinge volume also leaves more room for the battery, which is the key factor for Honor to increase battery life while making the phone thinner.
It starts with the hinge and ends with the experience
The 15 folding machines released this year have their own materials and processes, but they all have one purpose: to improve the texture of the hinge.
The texture of the folding screen hinge is not only related to the weight of the mobile phone, the life of the structure, and the crease of the screen, but also the damping feeling and smoothness when opening and closing are also the differences that users can intuitively feel after experiencing it in the store, which has become an important reference when purchasing.
It directly affects the weight of the mobile phone, the life of the structure, the crease of the screen and the damping feeling when opening and closing, and these are the basic thresholds for consumers to buy folding screen mobile phones.
From iResearch's insight into the folding screen mobile phone market in 2023, it can be seen that the most important factor for users to buy a phone is "light and thin hold", and the weight and thickness are often based on hinge technology.
That's why manufacturers pay so much attention to the promotion of hinges, and Xiaomi even put the "keel hinge" at the top of the MIX Fold3 promotional page.
But when we buy the folding screen home, how we feel about daily use depends on the large screen experience. At present, everyone has two things in common:
The screen quality is excellent, and there is not much difference between them
The software adaptation is not satisfactory, and there is a lack of killer applications and scenarios
Only the OPPO Find N3's "Super Vision Panoramic Virtual Screen" allows us to see the direction of interactive development that truly belongs to folding screen mobile phones - accommodating more page information and innovative multi-task collaboration solutions.
Don Norman, a pioneer in the field of human-computer interaction, once said:
A good design is one that makes the user experience seamless, intuitive, and enjoyable.
For most folding screen mobile phones, the hinge, screen and other hardware are mature enough, but the software interaction is not intuitive enough, easy to use, and creative enough to make full use of the unique form of the folding screen, resulting in a sense of fragmentation in the experience.
I hope that in 2024, major manufacturers can put the ruthlessness of this year's roll hinge technology on volume software, volume system, and volume interaction, and deepen more possibilities in a larger square inch.
Fortunately, we are already seeing progress.